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Red Wings Preview: Haven’t Found what They’re Looking For

By Nate Brown

Mar 25, 2021; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill challenges a goal during the first period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 25, 2021; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill challenges a goal during the first period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Detroit Red Wings have a home and home series with Columbus today and tomorrow. MLive’s Ansar Khan tweeted out the practice lines yesterday:

While Evgeny Svechnikov has escaped the bench, it appears Dennis Cholowski will still be watching from afar. Jonathan Bernier is still out so buckle up. As seen in the horror fest Thursday night, Thomas Greiss wasn’t able to get very settled before Calvin Pickard replaced him.

Head coach Jeff Blashill said that a bunch of players didn’t bring their A, B, or C game and it’s curious that more wholesale changes didn’t occur. Patrick Nemeth had an utterly awful turnover which led to a goal–why not let Cholowski in over him? Obviously, they were practice lines and changes could yet occur, but another notable Red Wing watching from the outside is Matthias Brome.

The snakebitten Brome could not should probably have at least three or four goals by now, but just couldn’t get the puck luck early on. Darren Helm appears to be entrenched in the lineup, even without generating offense or standing out defensively, which is probably why he’s in there in the first place.

Scouting the Red Wings and Blue Jackets

One goal in three games doesn’t bode well for Detroit and if you look at Nashville and Columbus, there are a number of similarities. The Jackets are knocking on the playoff door, just three points behind the sliding Blackhawks for the final spot in the Central. They’ve had their share of struggles, and while Patrick Laine hasn’t been lighting things up, the Red Wings seem to be just the solution for any struggling player when it comes time to play them. After Rocco Grimaldi doubled his season goal total in just over two minutes, who’s to say Laine doesn’t pull something similar off? (Yes there’s some sarcasm there).

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I expect the Red Wings to come out better in today’s matchup but the struggles of Greiss certainly makes the lack of goal scoring more precarious. A John Tortorella coached team is going to grind defensively so it’s not as if the Red Wings will suddenly better chances offensively. Besides, Columbus has more than enough scorers who can put this game out of reach pretty quickly.

I’ll just sit here and wait for the obligatory Laine hat trick.

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